Quality & Metrics

Auto Parts Chain Looks to Replace Its Point-of-Sale System

May 2, 2013

O'Reilly Automotive has been on a strong growth path for the past couple of years. Adding to the retailer's success has been its rate of growth and technology evolvement. O'Reilly has been keeping up with the pace of change by replacing its POS transaction engine, integrating promotions and incentives into the new system for a seamless customer experience and enhancing its electronic parts catalog.

Open Group Debuts Global Technology Supply Chain Security Standard

May 1, 2013

SCE Magazine

The Open Group has published the Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard (O-TTPS), the first complete standard published by The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum (OTTF) and which will benefit global providers and acquirers of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products.

Testing is Key to Traceability within Packaging Supply Chain

May 1, 2013

Supply Chain Digital

The food supply chain has been a hot topic recently, with the horsemeat scandal creating a whirlwind of interest in an area which before had ticked along without very much attention at all.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Existing Distribution Operations - Using Maps and Metrics to Focus Your Analysis

April 30, 2013

When evaluating the performance effectiveness of current DC processes and procedures, it is critical to maintain a positive atmosphere.

Elevating Supply Chain Planning IQ with Data Analytics

April 29, 2013

Romi Malik, Manager, Data & Analytics Solutions Practice, Mindtree

Supply chain is the largest expense for any product company and generally accounts for 60 percent to 90 percent of all costs. Controlling such a substantial expense demands continuous performance improvement and high operational efficiency. Research suggests the existence of a statistically significant relationship between analytical capabilities and supply chain performance. In other words, data analysis can assist in controlling supply chain costs. Further, an analysis of 310 companies from different industries in the USA, Europe, Canada, Brazil and China indicates that analytics of the supply chain plan has the second-biggest influence on supply chain performance.

Food Safety: It's All About the Supply Chain

April 29, 2013

Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

As tainted-food scandals go, it wasn't so bad. The discovery early this year of unlabeled horse meat in European food products wasn't for the most part a safety issue. It was a violation of cultural norms, to be sure, as well as a truth-in-packaging problem. Most of all, it was a supply-chain failure.

There's a Lot of Talk About 'Demand Driven' - Much of It Nonsense

April 24, 2013

Lora Cecere, Founder, Supply Chain Insights

The term demand driven has become vogue again, but what does it really mean? And, should it be taken one step further to orchestrate bidirectionally market-to-market in market-driven value networks? Or will companies stumble on the path by mistakenly implementing supply-centric processes and calling them demand-driven initiatives?

Open Group Publishes Supply-Chain Security Standard

April 23, 2013

The Open Group

The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, a global consortium formed to create information-technology standards and certifications, has published the Open Trusted Technology Standard (O-TTPS).

Emerging Markets Find Sustainability Pays Off, And Isn't Monopoly of More Developed Countries

April 23, 2013

BCG Perspectives

Organic products were a luxury with little market to speak of when Ibrahim Abouleish founded Sekem, Egypt's first organic farm, in Cairo in 1977. The years Sekem spent honing sustainable cultivation practices paid off, though, in 1990, when it moved into growing organic cotton. Organic produce was entering mainstream Western stores then, and worldwide demand for all things organic began to surge.

U.S. Coast Guard Permits Certain Temporary Ballast Water Treatment Systems

April 22, 2013

Maritime Executive

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the acceptance of nine ballast water treatment systems as Alternate Management Systems (AMS) in compliance with the service's March 2012 final rule for Standards for Living Organisms in Ships' Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. waters.